Through Uchiha Eyes
by ColourVegan
Summary: Non-massacre AU. Fifteen minutes seen from the point of view of three different Uchihas - Sasuke, Shisui and Itachi. ItaSaku


**Title:** Through Uchiha Eyes

**Fandom:** Naruto; non-massacre AU

**Characters/parings:** Naruto, Sasuke, Shisui; Itachi/Sakura

**Rating:** PG-13

**Summary:** Non-massacre AU. Fifteen minutes seen from the point of view of three different Uchihas. ItaSaku

**Author's notes:** This is another standalone instalment in the much longer non-massacre ItaSaku story I'd like to write – some lazy part of me has a very lazy idea about just writing a number of standalone short/one-shot stories and then lit their chronology in my profile. The thing is that I'm terrible at writing anything complete that consists of more than one chapter so maybe that is the best way to get this vague story out of me.

**Disclaimer:** Kishimoto Masashi is the God of Naruto – I'm just a simple worshiper.

- - -

Uchiha Sasuke had to hold back another sigh as his blonde best friend all but pulled him trough the streets of Konoha towards the Haruno clan compound. The slightly younger shinobi had let go of his wrist some blocks ago, but he still felt like he had no choice other than to follow his teammate.

"Hurry up, teme!" Naruto called over his shoulder, voice as impatient as ever, "we haven't seen Sakura-chan in ages!"

After another suppressed sigh he lengthened his stride and came up alongside his excited friend; it was true they hadn't met their former-teammate in almost four months because of a mission and he had missed the pink haired kunoichi more than he'd liked to admit.

They hadn't been teammates for more than five years – not since the disastrous Chuunin exam the year they turned thirteen; their paths had taken them in very different directions after that. Sakura had become a Chuunin that day and had come to study under the Godaime Hokage; Naruto had gone off with his godfather Jiraiya not long after the exams and hadn't returned to Konoha for another three years; Sasuke himself had been getting special tutoring from his father and the other clansmen.

By the time Naruto returned Sakura had become an ANBU Tokubetsu Jounin, Sasuke had just become a Chuunin and he was still stuck at Genin; it didn't take the blonde long to reach the same rank as his Uchiha friend, however, and the two made Jounin together two years later – ending up on the same team with Kakashi and an odd shinobi named Sai.

Sakura had come to seem so much older and more mature to Sasuke since Team 7 was officially disbanded – it was more than the four months between March and July - she always seemed to be a rank or two above him and every time he spoke to her he felt like a foolish little boy.

Whenever he saw her nowadays she was either in the company of his cousin Shisui, her taichou, or some other older ninja – she was never alone or with just one of their old Academy friends these days – sometimes he even saw her from afar talking with his aniki, Itachi.

He shouldn't have been surprised, after having been reluctantly allowed into the compound by the evening sentry and ushered towards the kitchen by one of Sakura's distant cousins, when he and Naruto literally ran into Uchiha Shisui as the older shinobi was about the exit the room.

"Oi, teme's cousin!" Naruto yelled as he picked himself up from the floor and glared up at the Uchiha who just arched an eyebrow at the two ninja sitting at the floor. "What are _you_ doing here?"

"Making you two fall on your respective asses?" Shisui replied with an amused grin as he extended a hand to his younger cousin and helped him to his feet.

"Seriously Shisui-nii-san," Sasuke said evenly, "what are you doing here?"

His older cousin was covered head to foot in flour, cacao powder and possibly something else – there was a slight hint of sake odour on his breath as he spoke, but it was barely there.

"Same as you I'd guess," the older Uchiha answered with a smile, "spending some downtime with my favourite Haruno."

"You're not alone, are you," the blonde enquired suspiciously, blue eyes staring at the older shinobi, "just the two of you?"

"Nah," Shisui replied, and Sasuke felt instantly worried for some reason, "Ita-kun's here too."

.

Uchiha Shisui let out a carefree laugh as Sakura flung another teaspoon full of flour at him and only-almost managed to duck a spoon full of cacao power from Itachi; the three of them were supposed to be baking a chocolate cake, but after a while of serious baking and light sake sipping they, or rather he, had started a "food" fight.

"Oh Kami – you two are so childish!" Sakura exclaimed five minutes later, but the sting of the words was gravely lessened by the fact that she was just as covered as they were, mostly in flour, but there were patches of dark cacao and light vanillin, too.

He couldn't help laughing again when his otherwise composed cousin leaned down and licked the kunoichi's cheek, mumbling about how sweet she tasted and earned a blush followed by a playful punch in the arm for his troubles.

The plan was to make a cake for Sasuke's birthday, but all that they'd managed so far was to almost mix the dry ingredients – that was before they begun to toss flour, sugar, cacao and vanillin powder at each other – the sake had been a very bad idea he had to admit.

In moments like this he forgot that he often felt like Sakura was four years older than Sasuke, rather than the actual four months – like this they were all just the children their respective clans never really been allowed to be. Sometimes, in moments like this, he felt like he and his two best friends were six years old again – like they'd never had been together – just waiting for their mother – another something they never had shared – to run into the kitchen yelling at them for making a mess; he liked moments like this when they were just Shisui, Itachi and Sakura – three very childish people – not deadly ANBU.

He's known Itachi since forever and Sakura for more than ten years – they'd been friends of sort since she was seven and Madoka, her aniki and his teammate, died on a mission; he knew Itachi saw him as the aniki he never had and he had told Sakura he wanted to be like an aniki to her because he blamed himself for Madoka's death – even though she had two other older brothers and she didn't blame him for her aniki's death their friendship started out as a sibling-ship of a kind before growing into a deep friendship after she became his team's medic.

The moment was lost when Itachi snuck an arm around Sakura's waist and caught her lips with his – Shisui hated to be reminded that they weren't really just three best friends anymore, that for the past few months his two best friends had become something more to each other and he couldn't share it with them.

With a barely suppressed sigh Shisui excused himself from the kitchen knowing the couple would be at it for another couple of moments before they sobered up – he could either stand by and feel like a fifth wheel or he could try and get some of the floury mess off of him.

He wasn't fully prepared for someone to run into his chest, but the moment he exited the kitchen his little cousin and said cousin's best friend bounced off his torso and fell on their individual asses on the floor.

The blonde shinobi was up almost instantly with a loud: "Oi, teme's cousin!" shouted directly in his face – the youngest ninja was getting taller and taller with each passing day.

Sasuke was there too, his dark eyes taking in the flour and other dry ingredients as he watched him suspiciously – this was, just as Shikamaru liked to profess, troublesome. There were two good reasons why his youngest cousin's presence was bothersome – the cake surprise being ruined was the minor one, but he really didn't want to know how the younger shinobi would react to his aniki and former-teammate exchanging bodily fluids – he didn't even know how he really felt about the couple even though he'd known for almost a month.

This needed some careful manœuvring on his part or there would be a diplomatic incident between the honourable Haruno Clan and the Uchihas any moment now.

.

Uchiha Itachi smiled quietly as Sakura read ingredients and quantities of the recipe's list – he had always enjoyed the peaceful moments; familiar moments like this that he got to spend with his best friend and his lover – no enemy shinobi in sight – just the three of them talking, laughing and just enjoying each other's company.

At the beginning of the week he'd made the offhand comment that his otouto would be turning eighteen in a few days to which his cousin had replied that they would have to bake a cake – Sakura had readily given up the use of her family's kitchen so that the younger Uchiha wouldn't get wind of the birthday cake.

The trio had rendezvoused earlier in the evening to begin plotting their "Happy Birthday Sasuke-kun" operation – it involved a cookbook, some baking utensils, a few ingredients and a bit of really cheep sake (the latter being Shisui's oh so brilliant idea).

Everything had gone smoothly until Sakura had mentioned something that happened during her team's latest mission and Shisui had picked up a tea spoon with flour and flung its content at Sakura to make her shut up – a "food" fight was unavoidable after that and the three ANBU were tossing flour, sugar, cacao and other baking items at each other just as much as they half-heartedly attempted to dodge them.

It all ended with his petit lover declaring them the two most childish shinobi of her acquaintance – her indignant pose was made all the more fun since she was just as covered in flour and other dry baking goods as they were and it only made Shisui break out laughing at her; a patch of what could be vanillin was speaking loudly to Itachi to lick it off, making her blush prettily and hitting his arm softly.

From what felt like a great distance Itachi could hear Shisui begin laughing harder than before – maybe his cousin thought the whole episode funny, but to Itachi is was almost titillating in its light-heartedness. He truly loved moment like this, moments when he was allowed to be just Itachi and titles were so very far away – moments when Sakura was just Sakura and they didn't have to hide behind carefully constructed façades.

He couldn't help slipping an arm around his lover's slim waist and capturing her cherry coloured lips with his as her arms encircled his neck – she tasted like vanillin and cacao right now; he could feel the smile on her lips as she allowed his tongue to slide into her mouth and caress her own.

Pressing the kunoichi against the kitchen counter and sliding his dirty hands under her crimson uniform jacket he only briefly registered that Shisui had left the kitchen – Sakura's teeth biting his lower lip carefully distracted him as he had to swallow a moan and began kissing her neck.

"Ita-kun," he could hear Sakura say breathlessly, "stop."

Reality crashed down around them as he had to take a step backwards to get his erratic breathing under control – this was a really bad place to do anything remotely related to what they had been doing (he fully blamed the sake).

As she smiled apologetically and caught his hand in hers gently a small ache began to take form inside his chest – all he could ever have with Sakura was small, fleeting moments before their reality caught up with them again.

Behind the closed kitchen door he could feel Shisui, Sasuke and Naruto's chakra signatures and a bit further away they were surrounded by Harunos – further away still was all of Konoha, along with his own clan, boxing them in and suffocating them; they were expected to act in a certain way and that way was not carefree and happy – they were ninja, deadly assassins without feelings.

There were some moments Uchiha Itachi really hated.

- - -

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